John Ternus has officially taken over as chief executive officer of Apple, marking a historic leadership change for the company on Tuesday (September 1) after Tim Cook's 15-year tenure. Cook, who will now serve as executive chairman, guided Apple through a period of enormous growth, pushing the company's market value to $4.6 trillion, largely due to the global success of the iPhone. The leadership transition comes at a crucial time as Apple faces rising pressure to catch up in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.

Ternus, 51, joined Apple in 2001 and most recently worked as senior vice president of hardware engineering. He is stepping into the role at a time when Apple is under scrutiny for lagging behind rivals in the AI space. The company recently faced criticism over delays in releasing new AI-powered features and decided to rebuild its Siri voice assistant using Google's Gemini technology. The updated Siri is set for a full-scale rollout in September, and early feedback has been positive.

Ternus’s first major public appearance as CEO will come at Apple’s upcoming product launch event on September 9 at the Cupertino, California campus. The event is expected to showcase Apple's first foldable iPhone, new Apple Watch models, and the rebuilt Siri powered by large language models. Ternus also inherits oversight of a range of hardware products, including AirPods with environment-sensing cameras, smart glasses, and other AI-focused devices, several of which have been delayed due to challenges with AI software readiness.

Apple’s delayed entry into generative AI has drawn attention from investors and analysts, especially as other tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta have invested heavily in AI infrastructure. Apple’s strategy so far has focused on AI features that run directly on its devices, leveraging its custom silicon. However, most popular AI apps on iOS, such as ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, are developed by outside companies.

Cook, in his final earnings call as CEO, highlighted that Apple’s ability to process AI workloads on devices is a strategic advantage compared to cloud-dependent competitors and pointed to "enormous opportunities" ahead in AI. Ternus is expected to rely on Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan and Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh for supply chain and financial challenges, particularly as Apple continues to face a shortage of memory and storage chips, an issue the company does not expect to resolve before next year.

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